Vietnam's first ao dai (women's traditional tunic) museum will open in November in Ho Chi Minh City's District 9.

The private museum, belonging to noted ao dai designer Si Hoang and located in his suburban garden house, is aimed at domestic and foreign tourists and students keen to learn about Vietnamese dress culture.

It will feature 500 dresses dating back to 1930.

They include one donated by Ton Nu Thi Ninh, who is former ambassador of Vietnam to the EU and former vice-chair of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.

The dress was wore by Ninh, her mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law.

The collection also includes sets of ao dai owned by Nguyen Thi Dinh, Vietnam's first female major general to serve in the Vietnam People's Army, former deputy president Nguyen Thi Binh, and famous senior artist cai luong Kim Cuong and Bay Nam.

Apart from actual ao dai's, the museum will also have 3,000 photos of the tunic and other ao dai-related artifacts, according to Hoang, who spent 10 years and VND20 billion (US$1million) on the collection and building.

The former lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture had planned to open the museum on October 14, but was delayed due to certain issues.

Hoang's Long Thuan Garden House has a lotus pond, traditional Vietnamese wooden house, and camping space for students and tourists, sprawling over an area of 20,000 square meters.

It was built in 2002. Its address is 206/19/30 Long Thuan Street, District 9.